Amazon ditches packing pillows in largest plastic reduction in North America to date

24 Jun 2024 --- Amazon has replaced 95% of the plastic air pillows from its delivery packaging in North America with paper filler, targeting a full removal by the end of the year. This comes as part of the e-commerce giant’s multi-year effort to remove plastic delivery packaging from the region’s fulfillment centers. 

Amazon says this will be the largest plastic packaging reduction effort in North America and is anticipated to avoid nearly 15 billion plastic air pillows annually. For its discounted prices event, Prime Day, this year, the company discloses “nearly all” of its customer deliveries will not contain plastic air pillows.

“I’m proud of the cross-Amazon collaboration to make a positive impact on the customer delivery experience with easier-to-recycle materials. It’s a great example of how we thoughtfully test and scale new solutions to protect our customer experience,” says Pat Lindner, Amazon’s VP of Mechatronics and Sustainable Packaging.

“We are working toward full removal in North America by end of year and will continue to innovate, test and scale in order to prioritize curbside recyclable materials.”

The effort builds on Amazon’s ongoing investment in reducing packaging and increasing curbside recyclability across all its operations, while ensuring products reach customers undamaged. 

Amazon aims to avoid using nearly 15 billion plastic air pillows annually.Sizing down packaging
Last October, Amazon announced its first US automated fulfillment center in Ohio to eliminate plastic delivery packaging, including the transition from plastic air pillows to paper filler.

In Ohio, Amazon studied ways to move quickly on transitioning to paper filler for 95% of its shipments in less than a year.

To achieve this, Amazon’s teams collaborated with suppliers to source paper filler made from 100% recycled content while coordinating the transition across hundreds of fulfillment centers. 

“This included working with thousands of employees to change our machinery as well as to host employee trainings for these new systems and machines,” details the company.

“Through our testing of paper filler, which included an assessment by a third-party engineer lab, we discovered that it offers the same, if not better, protection to products than plastic air pillows.”

The paper filler is also curbside recyclable, making it easier for customers to recycle at home. They are also made from 100% recycled content.

“I’m so excited we’re changing over to paper. It’s not only easier to work with, but the machinery gives us more space, so it’s easier to pack orders. And I’m proud to be a part of a change that allows customers to recycle at home,” says Christian Garcia, fulfillment associate at Amazon’s BFL1 fulfillment center in Bakersfield, California.

Eco-packaging advances
Amazon announced this year that it is now shipping over 50% of European cargo in reduced, recyclable delivery packaging.

The company has also moved toward shipping items without any additional packaging. In 2022, 11% of all packages shipped by Amazon globally were without added Amazon delivery packaging through its Ships in Product Packaging program, where it tests and certifies products to ensure they can safely ship in their own packaging.

The e-commerce giant is also working to invent new materials and recycling solutions that keep both our customers and the environment in mind. For example, Amazon has teamed up with the US Department of Energy to initiate new materials and recycling programs.

“We’re also piloting new technology with Glacier, a San Francisco-based company, to use AI-powered robots to automate the sorting of recyclables and collect real-time data on recycling streams for companies — which can help reduce landfill waste and increase the use of recycled materials in packaging,” details the company.

In other recent activities, five packaging start-ups from across Europe have been selected for the third edition of Amazon’s Sustainability Accelerator. The start-ups are competing for the opportunity to trial their technologies in the e-commerce giant’s European operations and could receive an investment of up to €2 million (US$2.2 million).

By Benjamin Ferrer